foster kids

Bloom from Jean Swenson

Bloom
March 2022

This quilt will be donated as part of this year’s Hands2Help Challenge. This year, the challenge is being hosted by Mari over at The Academic Quilter. She will begin the sign-up process soon, so if you’re interested in joining this year’s challenge, check out her blog.

The backing fabric, shown here, is a Mary Engelbreit design from 2001, and has been living in my stash for about ten years now. I think the fabric is super cute, but every time I considered using it in a quilt, I was not sure how to cut ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 3 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Baby Quilts Up for Auction from Jean Swenson

Scooter & Tod

I have donated these two recently finished scrappy quilts to my grandkids elementary school for a silent auction that will raise money for school programs. If you are interested in bidding on either of these baby quilts, you can bid on Scooter (airplane) here, and Tod (fox) here.

Each quilt measures 40″x40″ and is made from 100% cotton outer, with 80/20 cotton/poly batting, machine pieced and quilted.

The auction is open from March 11-19, 2022.

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 3 months ago. under charity , foster kids , log cabin quilt , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Baby Quilts Up for Auction from Jean Swenson

Scooter & Tod

I have donated these two recently finished scrappy quilts to my grandkids elementary school for a silent auction that will raise money for school programs. If you are interested in bidding on either of these baby quilts, you can bid on Scooter (airplane) here, and Tod (fox) here.

Each quilt measures 40″x40″ and is made from 100% cotton outer, with 80/20 cotton/poly batting, machine pieced and quilted.

The auction is open from March 11-19, 2022.

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 3 months ago. under charity , foster kids , log cabin quilt , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Scooter from Jean Swenson

Scooter
January 2022

Every Spring, I try to participate in the Hands2Help Challenge hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict @fabricaddictquilts. This year I decided to get a jump start on making baby quilts for this great cause. Since I was working to deplete my scraps bins with my recent Tod quilt, I kept the momentum going and made these yellow and blue log cabin blocks with “mostly” scraps. I say “mostly” because I was being a bit too fussy about the colorway, and did go into my stash for some of the blues and yellows. I ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 5 months ago. under charity , foster kids , log cabin quilt , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Tod from Jean Swenson

Tod
January 2022

While putting away my holiday scraps, I found that my reds bin was close to exploding. So, time for a red scrappy quilt! I kept this baby quilt super simple, patchworking 2″ blocks. As for the fox, I found a coloring page online, and then enlarged the image to the size I wanted, and traced directly from my monitor. I know all you techies are cringing, yes, it’s probably not good form to trace off a monitor, but I try to press only ‘very, very lightly’ </p>
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added by jeanswenson 3 years, 5 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Traveller from Jean Swenson

Traveller
January 2022

I’ve been wanting to make a Wanderer’s Wife quilt for awhile and when I came across these jelly rolls, I knew they would be perfect for this project. Part of wanting to do this quilt was the desire to use up some of my orphan blocks. As it turned out, the blocks I used are about half new and half orphan blocks. It does not have as many blocks as some Wanderer’s Wife quilts I’ve seen, but I like its simplicity.

I like being able to repurpose, and I really like how this ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 5 months ago. under charity , foster kids , jelly roll , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , wanderer's wife (Comments)

H♥me from Jean Swenson

Hme
November 2021

My nephew Joe is getting married today, to his love, and best friend, Bailey. The name Hme is meaningful to them, hence the name.

Home is where the heart is. (Bailey)

You are my home. (Joe)

I hope through the years they become even better friends and share every possible kind of happiness life can bring.

The majority of the material used for this quilt is new, with a few pieces of the past mixed in. The pattern is called Geometric Slide, by Faith Jones.

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 7 months ago. under charity , foster kids , geometric slide , quanket , quilt , quilt projects (Comments)

Cheery from Jean Swenson

Cheery
September 2021

Here is my finished Hometown BOM (block of the month) that was hosted earlier this year by Jacquelynne Steves over at Art of the Home. She typically hosts a couple of sew alongs each year, and this is the fifth I’ve participated in, which included Save the Bees, Silver Linings (I made two), FaLaLa and her current Snowman & Silent Night sew along.

The colorway inspiration for me came from the border fabric, which has been in my stash for a while, waiting for just the right project, and this was it! The sew along was offered ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 8 months ago. under bom , charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt along , quilt projects , sew along (Comments)

Cheery from Jean Swenson

Cheery
September 2021

Here is my finished Hometown BOM (block of the month) that was hosted earlier this year by Jacquelynne Steves over at Art of the Home. She typically hosts a couple of sew alongs each year, and this is the fifth I’ve participated in, which included Save the Bees, Silver Linings (I made two), FaLaLa and her current Snowman & Silent Night sew along.

The colorway inspiration for me came from the border fabric, which has been in my stash for a while, waiting for just the right project, and this was it! The sew along was offered ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 8 months ago. under bom , charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt along , quilt projects , sew along (Comments)

Lassie from Jean Swenson

Lassie
September 2021

This quanket combines many scraps from Toodles, a quilt I made for my nephew Dexter, six years ago. The colorway is very mid-century modern. The avocado, browns, teals and oranges have made these fabrics a bit of a challenge to incorporate into other quilts over the past six years, not only because of their strong color personality, but also because the colors are all very saturated. I felt the linen color for the background provided the neutrality needed to compliment these strong colors.

This scrappy quilt began by sewing the small’ish scraps (most under 4″x3 ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 9 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Stormy from Jean Swenson

Stormy
September 2021

I try not to have too many UFOs, but this one became an unfinished project last year, during the pandemic. With the rush on cotton fabric for making face masks, it became increasingly difficult to sometimes get fabric, let alone trying to find more of a specific fabric. I needed less than a 1/4 yard of one of the outlying darker blues, but could not find it anywhere. Even as the pressures on cotton fabric eased over the last several months, I still had no luck finding what was needed.

After sitting in a drawer for ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 9 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , storm at sea , storm at sea quilt (Comments)

Bunn Bunn from Jean Swenson

Bunn Bunn
August 2021

I usually don’t do panels, but this one was just too cute to pass up! The center panel is Timeless Treasures Fabrics Bunny And Her Bear. The panel is 24″ wide by 44″ long, which is a little narrow for a quilt – even a baby quilt – so I bordered it with a narrow soft pink all around and added the two side hourglass borders to make the overall quilt wider. I custom quilted the center area to highlight the design – it required tying and burying a lot of knots on the backside, but the overall ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 10 months ago. under charity , foster kids , hourglass block quilt , quanket , quilt , quilt projects (Comments)

M82 from Jean Swenson

M82
August 2021

The cream fabric in this scrappy quilt is leftover from my Firsts quilt while the blues were pulled from my bottomless blue scraps bin. I organize my scraps by color, and it seems that no matter how many times I create scrappy blue quilts, this bin is always full! I created the scrappy blocks by sewing seven, 1.5″ x 7.5″ strips, and then combining a cream block to make the half square rectangles (HSTs).

I love the versatility of HSTs. Just a simple rotation, or placement of fabric and color can make it look completely ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 10 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Plumage from Jean Swenson

Plumage
July 2021

While I have named this recent finish “Plumage”, I think “Into the Corner” would perhaps have been a more fitting name. The reason being is that I sort of got painted into the corner with this one. My plan all along had been to make this a quanket – backing the quilt top with a fleece backing. However, in letting the top’s design take the lead, it ended up being 66″x66″ which is larger than the readily available 60″ wide fleece at the fabric stores. I was truly flummoxed by the situation I had gotten myself ...

added by jeanswenson 3 years, 11 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , wind drifter quilt (Comments)

Firsts from Jean Swenson

Firsts
June 2021

This is a quilt I made for my husband, twice. The pinwheel blocks are from the first quilt I ever made, 40 years ago, as a gift for him for our first Christmas together. The original quilt had been the pinwheel blocks set in a 4×5 layout with an ivory border and backing. I made it in the style of a comforter, using high loft polyester batting, that I sewed around the inside edges before turning out, like a pillowcase. I didn’t know to tack through the batting around the center area, so when it ...

added by jeanswenson 4 years ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects (Comments)

Further from Jean Swenson

Further
May 2021

This recent finish is the largest quilt I’ve made, measuring 90″x90″. I quilted it on my regular sewing machine, and because I didn’t want to wrestle the entire thing during the quilting phase, I opted to build it in two triangles that I then joined after quilting – sort of quilt as you go (QAYG), but on a much larger scale. I had a few lines I had to quilt on the machine after it was all together, but this seemed more manageable than having to do all the quilting at its completed size. Due ...

added by jeanswenson 4 years, 1 month ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects (Comments)

W00t from Jean Swenson

W00t
May 2021

The design for this baby quilt began with the owl fabric, that I fussy cut to showcase the owls. It will be donated as part of this year’s Hands2Help Challenge being hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict @fabricaddictquilts. The cute owl fabric is the last of this fabric which I had previously used in Hoots, which went to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids for the 2018 Hands2Help challenge. This quilt is also heading off to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids @littlelambsfoundationforkids for this year’s challenge.

The log cabin blocks were made ...

added by jeanswenson 4 years, 1 month ago. under charity , foster kids , log cabin quilt , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Echoes from Jean Swenson

Echoes
May 2021

Here’s a baby quilt that will be donated to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids @littlelambsfoundationforkids as part of this year’s Hands2Help Challenge being hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict @fabricaddictquilts.

The fabric of the animals riding around in cars is the last I have of this fabric, which I also used in Twizzler Goes for a Ride and Toodles. The blue, cream-colored and dark green blocks are all solid fabrics, which is deceiving since the fleece I used for the backing on this quanket (blanket + quilt = quanket) shows through when held ...

added by jeanswenson 4 years, 2 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

M81 from Jean Swenson

M81
April 2021

While it has been quiet here on my blog for the past few months, my sewing room has been anything but quiet! I’ve been working on improving my quilting skills, which I like to do on smaller-sized items, as they are more manageable on my standard domestic sewing machine. I made four table runners, shown in the picture below. The Valentine ones were for each of my daughters, the blue one was for my youngest daughter’s birthday, and the one that looks like a serapa blanket was for me. I have also been working on ...

added by jeanswenson 4 years, 2 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , scrappy quilt (Comments)

Quiet Start from Jean Swenson

Quiet Start
January 2021

In mid-December, my nephew surprised everyone, announcing that he and his partner of six-years were getting married in a week’s time. While it wasn’t a surprise that they are perfectly matched and would eventually marry, the actual wedding arrived sort of out of the blue. However, it was such a beautiful and memorable culmination to a year that had been to that point less than stellar, leaving me with a good memory for 2020.

The name, Quiet Start, comes from their wedding vows. While they don’t have “a song” per se, they feel ...

added by jeanswenson 4 years, 5 months ago. under charity , foster kids , quanket , quilt , quilt projects , wagga rug , wool quilt (Comments)

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